Although federal law enforcement officials have hacked into his phone and searched his personal computer, they claim they know no better about the 20-year-old man who targeted former President Donald Trump than they did on the day of the shooting .
Thomas Matthew Crooks allegedly left virtually no digital trace when he shot Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. For some reason, he seems to be the only person in Gen Z who doesn’t have a dozen different social media profiles. Investigators have gathered few clues about Crooks’ online activities, and they don’t help us understand who he is or why he did what he did. That said, the government has released more details over the past few days.
CNN reported that FBI and U.S. Secret Service officials briefed members of Congress on Wednesday about new information about Crooks. A report provided to lawmakers summarized the “scope” of the current investigation and provided previously undisclosed details about the alleged shooter’s online activities. The activities include research into numerous upcoming political rallies by Presidents Trump and Biden, as well as other “well-known political figures and political events.” For example, CNN wrote that three days before the fateful Trump rally, Crooks also researched the date and location of next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Earlier this year, Crooks also searched for information about major depression and appeared to be looking for resources related to depression crisis treatment, according to the outlet.
Most interestingly, CNN writes that Crooks had on his primary phone a copy of the arrest photo of Ethan Crumbley, a school shooter in 2021 Shot and killed four classmates in Michigan. In a historic legal development, Crumbley’s parents were also charged with “negligence” in relation to the incident.
According to a new report from The Daily Beast, the last thing he searched for on his phone was pornography.
So…that’s not very helpful. A would-be murderer studied other killers and watched one last porn video on his way out. In other words, Crooks also owns two cell phones. While one of the phones has been cracked (reportedly a “newer Samsung” running Android), not much has been revealed about the contents of the other phone. It’s unclear whether police have investigated the second device or its contents.
According to CNN, investigators “remain puzzled by the possible motives for Saturday’s attempt on the former president’s life and have found no indication that the attack had a political or ideological intent.” However, the officials also bizarrely claimed that he may have been “seeking to conduct a mass shooting, with the proximity and timing of Trump’s events providing the most readily available opportunity.” It’s hard to see how the police came to this conclusion. Most mass shootings appear to target large, poorly protected areas such as schools, churches or shopping malls. Political rallies with hordes of police officers and police snipers may not seem like an easy target for those who want to kill a lot of people.
There are a lot of strange things surrounding the Trump shooting that are driving conspiracy theorists crazy. As is the case with many shootings, it seems unlikely that we’ll see a satisfactory explanation anytime soon.
